Cosmically Complicated
by MarLuna
Summary: Throw me a line. After my brother left for his own adventure, I was thrown aboard the same idea and got tossed into a world I wasn't prepared for, which consisted of my cousin who I'm sure eats dirt, this really cute guy, and, as cliché as it sounds, two evil organizations that always want to destroy each other.


Author's corner

Guess who's digging a whole for herself by creating another story? THIS GUY OHOHO and I'm supposed to be reading books and writing an essay for class but we all know that my imagination is at a peak when I procrastinate. It's a known fact!

Feather just wants to say that she's sadface that she doesn't get to show up in this chapter.

Enjoy!

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**COSMICALLY COMPLICATED **

_Written by MarLuna_

_Beta'd by FeatherFromHel_

_+standard disclaimer applied_

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_Summary_

_Throw me a line. After my brother left for his own adventure, I was thrown aboard the same idea and got tossed into a world I wasn't prepared for, which consisted of my cousin who I'm sure eats dirt, this really cute guy, and, as cliché as it sounds, two evil organizations that always want to destroy each other. Let's jump into the deep end where there's no lifeguard nor life jacket and none of can swim, and the only thing that's standing between us and our destination is a five foot wall._

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_**-COSMICALLY COMPLICATED-**_

My brother always wanted to become a pokémon master. When I reached the age when I no longer saw him as my role model and felt the need to copy everything he did, I thought it was a waste. Travelling all over the world? Hunting for tiny little accessories that could easily be pawned and sold and no longer has any merit? Becoming a pokémon master was a dream wasted. The world expanded and it became much harder to even challenge the first gym. The only way to become a master now was to take over one of the gyms, gain enough experience, and finally, when ready and when there's free time, challenge the Champion.

But my brother was dead set on winning the title the old fashion way. I didn't care—it was his business if he wanted to waste his life. There were towns and fake badges and leaders all over the place, so it was really easy to lose his way. It would take him a year of travelling to finally find the first gym and win a battle. It was a waste, and our parent thought so too. With him getting ready for a long travel ahead of him and finally doing his chores and cleaning his room and being overall pleasant, my parents started to worry about me. I constantly told them that I was going to stay in school, because I wanted to finish high school before I made any life changing decisions (like my brother did). Our parents are the supportive type: they would never tell us no to our faces, but they would fret and worry and try to talk it out but they would let lessons be learned by themselves. That's why they worried about me, because I was too safe, because they never did worry. They asked me to adventure with my brother, to keep an eye on him because he was the worrisome one, but he refused as hard as he could, because being followed by family is truly unpleasant. I agreed with him, as I felt no need to change my life to fit his (and I don't want to be his babysitter). I didn't want to adventure—I wanted a job, a family, and a bright future. Hunting for badges didn't guarantee any of that, and there was already so many trainers on that quest anyway that it was such a depressing thought.

My parents decided to try one more time at convincing us to change our minds (mine about not going and his about going). On my birthday, when I turned "of age" at 16 and we were now allowed to leave home (it used to be 10 but they raised it because there were too many casualties), they got me and my brother each an eevee.

The experiment with real pokémon was easy for me and hard with my brother, who had no sense of responsibility. I took care of their food, water, litter, walks, and everything else I needed to devote my time for, whilst he played his games and neglected them. He was, however, the authority figure, and they cowered away from him because his punishments were weird (for example, he would scold them when they played too rough by warning them and holding them down for a while, until they whined uncle), but yet he was the one they always wanted to play with. It bothered me, because I did all of the hard work and yet they liked him better. But that wasn't anything I could change, because I was dull and work and he was fun and play.

About four months in, Dawn and Dusk (named after my brother's and I's video games) started to show their personalities. Dusk glued himself to my side and became a food and cuddle lover. If I sat somewhere, he would swoop in and sit on me, then whined at my face until I stroked his fur. If I had food in my hands (any kind of food, really) he would try to climb me or steal it away). Dawn, on the other hand, always wanted to play and make trouble. She would rest all day, waiting for my brother, but as soon as he'd arrive, she'd pounce on him and grab his feet and clothes and refuse to give up until he played with her, and they often did so during the long hours of the night, when I was safely tucked into bed with Dusk. It was no surprise that by the end of the month, his eevee had already evolved into an umbreon. When my eevee still refused to evolve, my parents thought there was something wrong with _me_. They could not understand how I did all of the care yet didn't have my eevee evolve naturally. They thought maybe the eevees have been swapped, but as the owners, we would have noticed instantly.

The fact that he was finally ahead of me with something, specifically pokémon, fuelled my brother's ego. He'd come and check on me every weekend, when he wasn't out with his friends, to see how I went with my eevee. When there wasn't any progress, he'd snort, say something condescending, then try to be apologetic when he realized it didn't really faze me.

Noticing our dynamic—I'd start to seclude myself and he'd start to leave more and more the house—our parents finally agreed to his wishes on his birthday, eight months after mine (and the same one where we got our pokémon), as long as he finished his last year of high school. In preparation for his last few months, he went out and got his pokémon registered legally (it's required to register your starting pokémon so that they know that they aren't being an idiot and going out defenceless) and got his pokémon trainer card and all sorts of special items. I was jealous of all the attention he had for his outrageous dream, but I didn't voice it, because as soon as he'd leave, the attention would shift to me and my failure and I know I'd wish he'd come back to take it all away from me.

The big day came faster than expected and I wasn't ready. Almost too eagerly, we said goodbye and he went running out, jumping on his brand spanking new bike and vanishing, unable to wait to start on his adventure. He almost forgot his bag too, but quickly came back before he left for good.

His leave left a gap in our family dynamics that I didn't know could happen. There was a sudden coldness and loneliness that surged the air and made everything sullen. With him gone on a fairy tale ending, my parents changed their minds and hoped I'd make the right decision and move ahead in life with university. With that sudden inexplicable pressure, I felt the seed of rebellion grow within me. I didn't want to conform. I wanted to live. I wanted to be me!

But... what _is_ me?

With a sudden identity crisis that even my parents noticed, none of us knew what to do. My brother called home quite often, and he would tell us where he was and what he was doing and where he was headed, and that alone made the situation worse. While I could easily see him progressing so well and better than I ever could, I was scared that I could never amount to something as great as that. His journey was working so well that I thought that he was right and that hopes and dreams are a thing and could actually come true. I wanted to be like that. I needed to be like that. Someone with dreams, someone that live, someone that isn't afraid to follow their heart.

"I called our aunts and uncles last night." Mother told me, entering the solitude of my room and sitting on my bed, a grave look on her features. Dusk, who was sitting on my desk and swatting at my pencils, scooted closer to me. "Not the dead ones, of course, from that freak accident two years ago."

"What for?" I asked, hand automatically reaching to stroke the fur of my eevee. I did that whenever I felt stressed or upset, and the little ball of fluff loved it too much to complain.

"For advice." She took a deep breath, linked gazes with father that was anxiously waiting behind the door, too afraid to enter, and spoke swiftly. "They highly suggested that it would be best for you to go out in the world and discovered everything and nothing and yourself and basically yeah you should go on a pokémon adventure."

I blinked, not expecting it. I thought she was going to talk to me about moving me away for a better school. But _this_? Like my brother? That's something I couldn't accept. "What do _you_ think?"

Another glance at dad, who still looked too awkward to join in on the conversation. Mom was fidgeting, unsure. "We thinking it would be best if you went as well."

"But!" Dad (finally!) piped up. "We don't think it's right for a single young lady to be travelling all alone in this horrid world."

"But you let Pierce—"

"So!" He cut off again. Interrupting people was one of his special skills that took precisely 16 years to master. "We've made some arrangements so that you won't be travelling alone."

"I don't want to go though—"

"Sweetie, sometimes you have to stop being scared of trying something new."

I squinted at her face, more tired than usual. She was hiding something from me, I just knew it. "You're going on vacation, aren't you?"

They avoided my dead-on prediction. "We-we-we've set it up so that you can travel around with that nice cousin of yours? You know, the one that kinda maybe not saw at the funeral?"

"The one who ate dirt as a kid?"

"No, the one that clutches that weird egg."

"It's the same person."

"WEEEEEELL yeah so you're meeting her in Slateport city so you need to pack."

"Do you need my help, sweetie?" Mom tried to look like a saint in this force-you-to-leave-us-alone situation.

"I don't want to go—"

"Too bad!" And with the slam of the door, they were gone, leaving me alone to fight with my apparently-needed-to-be-packed luggage.

We (Dusk and I) were set to leave in a few days, as soon as I could register Dusk and get my trainer licence completed. We also went shopping, but it was the shortest one I've ever been on (approximately 30 minutes at the corner store) where we just bought the basics and then high tailed it. I tried again to argue with my parents but they denied me at every chance, bringing up instead topics like "how to know when you're being chased by angry beedrills" or "how to not sleep in a durant hill" that were too confusing for me to even keep up with. I got swept away by their mood and sense of urgency that I didn't truly know what was happening until I was left standing on the ship, ticket in hand, eevee at my feet, and my bag stuffed so badly that some people could see my underwear through the thick material.

I waved back to my parents mindlessly, trying to wrap my mind around how I managed to even get on the ship without falling in the water, and prayed to Arceus that my crazy cousin is actually waiting for me at the dock so that I'm not stuck looking like a lost mareep in a herd of tauros. I turned away, defiant, and instead looked down to Dusk, who was curled up at my feet like a loaf of bread.

"Eeeeev?" he chirped, pushing himself to his feet and brushed against my leg in his way of demanding to get picked up. I bent down and lifted him into my arms, and he curled up against my face so that I couldn't see anything anymore.

"Yeah great thanks." I murmured, nearly bumping into poor surrounding passersby as I tried to make my way inside the cabin of the ship. It would be a while before the ship would reach the docks of Slateport city, where my cousin and a hell of a journey await me.


End file.
